Fall of

Constantinople

The Fall of Constantinople (Greek: Ἅλωσις

τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Halōsis tēs
Kōnstantinoupoleōs; Turkish: İstanbul'un
Fethi Conquest of Istanbul) was the
capture of the capital of the Byzantine
Empire by an invading army of the
Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453. The
Ottomans were commanded by the then
21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the
Conqueror, who defeated an army
commanded by Byzantine Emperor
Constantine XI Palaiologos. The conquest
of Constantinople followed a 53-day siege
that had begun on 6 April 1453.
 Conquest of Constantinople

Part of the Byzantine–Ottoman Wars and

Ottoman wars in Europe

The last siege of Constantinople, contemporary

15th century French miniature
Date 6 April – 29 May 1453 (53 days)

Location Constantinople (present-day

Istanbul)

Result Decisive Ottoman victory[2]

Fall of the Byzantine Empire

Constantinople becomes the

Ottoman Empire's new capital

Belligerents

Ottoman Empire  Byzantine Empire[a]

 Republic of Genoa
 Republic of Venice[b]
 Kingdom of Sicily[c]
Papal States
Ottoman Defectors[1]
Mehmed II
Commanders and leaders
Constantine XI †
Zagan Pasha Loukas Notaras 
Suleiman Baltoghlu Theophilos
Hamza Bey Palaiologos †
Giovanni Giustiniani
Longo (WIA)[d]
Orhan Çelebi  [4]:418–420

Strength

Ottomans Byzantines
Land forces:
Land forces: [e] 50,000–
80,000[6]:101 7,000–10,000[5]:85
[7]:49[8]:52[9]:618[10][11] [12]:755[19]:343

[12]:755[20]:46[21]-12,000,

[18] many of whom

[f]100,000[12]:755–
were civilians
 160,000[13][14]– 600 Ottoman
200,000[3] defectors[22]
70 Naval forces:
cannons[15]:139–14014
large and 56 small 26 ships[10]:45[g]
caliber)[16]:179

Naval forces:

70 ships,[10]:4420
galleys[17]
90 – 126 ships [18]
Casualties and losses

Unknown but heavy[24][4] 4,000 killed in total

(including
combatants and
civilians)[10]:37–8
30,000 enslaved or
deported[24]
a. More specifically, the Byzantine Empire under the
Palaiologos dynasty

b. The Venetians decided to make a peace treaty with

the Ottomans in September 1451, because they were on
good terms already with the Ottomans and they did not
want to ruin a relationship. They also did not want the
Ottomans to interfere with their trade in the Black Sea
and Mediterranean. The Venetians' efforts mainly
included giving Constantine XI ships and a total of 800
soldiers in February 1453. The Venetians also promised
that a larger fleet would arrive to save Constantine, this
fleet would be full of ammunition, fresh soldiers and
supplies. This fleet arrived too late.
c. The Kingdom of Sicily mainly donated ships and a
few soldiers, it was not official however, and was done
by several Cardinals.
d. The Genoese captain Giovanni Giustiniani Longo was
wounded in battle, but managed to escape, he died
during the early days of June 1453.[3]
e. Figures according to recent estimates and Ottoman
archival data. The Ottoman Empire, for demographic
reasons, would not have been able to put more than
80,000 men into the field at the time.[5]:215

f. Figures according to contemporaneous

Western/Christian estimates[5]:215

g. By nationality, there were 5,000 Greeks and 2,000

foreigners, mostly of Genoese and Venetian origin.[23]

The capture of Constantinople (and two

other Byzantine splinter territories soon
thereafter) marked the end of the
Byzantine Empire, a continuation of the
Roman Empire dating to 27 BC, an imperial
state lasting for nearly 1,500 years.[25] The
Ottoman conquest of Constantinople also
dealt a massive blow to Christendom, as
the Muslim Ottoman armies thereafter
were left unchecked to advance into
Europe without an adversary to their rear.
After the conquest, Sultan Mehmed II
transferred the capital of the Ottoman
Empire from Edirne to Constantinople.

It was also a watershed moment in

military history. Since ancient times, cities
had used ramparts and city walls to
protect themselves from invaders, and
Constantinople's substantial fortifications
had been a model followed by cities
throughout the Mediterranean region and
Europe. The Ottomans ultimately prevailed
due to the use of gunpowder (which
powered formidable cannons).[26]
The conquest of the city of Constantinople
and the end of the Byzantine Empire[27]
was a key event in the Late Middle Ages
which also marks, for some historians, the
end of the Middle Ages.[28]

State of the Byzantine Empire

Constantinople had been an imperial
capital since its consecration in 330 under
Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great. In
the following eleven centuries, the city had
been besieged many times but was
captured only once: during the Fourth
Crusade in 1204.[29]:304 The crusaders
established an unstable Latin state in and
around Constantinople while the
remaining empire splintered into a number
of Byzantine successor states, notably
Nicaea, Epirus and Trebizond. They fought
as allies against the Latin establishments,
but also fought among themselves for the
Byzantine throne.

The Nicaeans eventually reconquered

Constantinople from the Latins in 1261.
Thereafter there was little peace for the
much-weakened empire as it fended off
successive attacks by the Latins, the
Serbians, the Bulgarians, and, most
importantly, the Ottoman Turks.[29]
[30][31][32] The Black Plague between 1346
and 1349 killed almost half of the
inhabitants of Constantinople.[33] The city
was severely depopulated due to the
general economic and territorial decline of
the empire, and by 1453 consisted of a
series of walled villages separated by vast
fields encircled by the fifth-century
Theodosian walls.

By 1450 the empire was exhausted and

had shrunk to a few square miles outside
the city of Constantinople itself, the
Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara,
and the Peloponnese with its cultural
center at Mystras. The Empire of
Trebizond, an independent successor
state that formed in the aftermath of the
Fourth Crusade, also survived on the coast
of the Black Sea.

Preparations
When Sultan Mehmed II succeeded his
father in 1451, he was just nineteen years
old. Many European courts assumed that
the young Ottoman ruler would not
seriously challenge Christian hegemony in
the Balkans and the Aegean.[34] This
calculation was boosted by Mehmed's
friendly overtures to the European envoys
at his new court.[35] But Mehmed's mild
words were not matched by actions. By
early 1452, work began on the
construction of a second fortress (Rumeli
hisarı) on the Bosphorus,[36] on the
European side several miles north of
Constantinople, set directly across the
strait on the Asian side from the Anadolu
Hisarı fortress, built by his great-
grandfather Bayezid I. This pair of
fortresses ensured complete control of
sea traffic on the Bosphorus;[37] and
defended against attack by the Genoese
colonies on the Black Sea coast to the
north. (This new fortress, was called
Boğazkesen, which means 'strait-blocker'
or 'throat-cutter', to emphasize its strategic
position.) In October 1452, Mehmed
ordered Turakhan Beg to station a large
garrison force in the Peloponnese to block
Thomas and Demetrios (despotes in
Southern Greece) from providing aid to
their brother Constantine XI Palaiologos
during the impending siege of
Constantinople.[nb 1] Michael Critobulus
says about the speech of Mehmed II to his
soldiers: "My friends and men of my
empire! You all know very well that our
forefathers secured this kingdom that we
now hold at the cost of many struggles
and very great dangers and that, having
passed it along in succession from their
fathers, from father to son, they handed it
down to me. For some of the oldest of you
were sharers in many of the exploits
carried through by them—those at least of
you who are of maturer years—and the
younger of you have heard of these deeds
from your fathers. They are not such very
ancient events nor of such a sort as to be
forgotten through the lapse of time. Still
the eyewitness of those who have seen
testifies better than does the hearing of
deeds that happened but yesterday or the
day before." Byzantine Emperor
Constantine XI swiftly understood
Mehmed's true intentions and turned to
Western Europe for help; but now the price
of centuries of war and enmity between
the eastern and western churches had to
be paid. Since the mutual
excommunications of 1054, the Pope in
Rome was committed to establishing
authority over the eastern church. Nominal
union had been negotiated in 1274, at the
Second Council of Lyon, and indeed, some
Palaiologoi emperors (Latin, Palaeologan)
had since been received into the Latin
church. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos had
also recently negotiated union with Pope
Eugene IV, with the Council of Florence of
1439 proclaiming a Bull of Union. These
events, however, stimulated a propaganda
initiative by anti-unionist Orthodox
partisans in Constantinople; the
population, as well as the laity and
leadership of the Byzantine Church,
became bitterly divided. Latent ethnic
hatred between Greeks and Italians,
stemming from the events of the
Massacre of the Latins in 1182 by the
Greeks and the sack of Constantinople in
1204 by the Latins, played a significant
role. Finally, the attempted Union failed,
greatly annoying Pope Nicholas V and the
hierarchy of the Roman church.
The Byzantine Empire in the first half of the
15th century. Thessaloniki was captured by the
Ottomans in 1430. A few islands in the Aegean and
the Propontis remained under Byzantine rule until
1453 (not shown on the map).

In the summer of 1452, when Rumelı

Hisari was completed and the threat had
become imminent, Constantine wrote to
the Pope, promising to implement the
Union, which was declared valid by a half-
hearted imperial court on 12 December
1452.[29]:373 Although he was eager for an
advantage, Pope Nicholas V did not have
the influence the Byzantines thought he
had over the Western kings and princes,
some of whom were wary of increasing
Papal control, and these had not the
wherewithal to contribute to the effort,
especially in light of the weakened state of
France and England from the Hundred
Years' War, Spain being in the final part of
the Reconquista, the internecine fighting in
the German Principalities, and Hungary
and Poland's defeat at the Battle of Varna
of 1444. Although some troops did arrive
from the mercantile city states in the north
of Italy, the Western contribution was not
adequate to counterbalance Ottoman
strength. Some Western individuals,
however, came to help defend the city on
their own account. Cardinal Isidore, funded
by the pope, arrived in 1452 with 200
archers[39] One of these was an
accomplished soldier from Genoa,
Giovanni Giustiniani, who arrived with 400
men from Genoa and 300 men from
Genoese Chios, in January 1453.[5]:83–84
As a specialist in defending walled cities,
he was immediately given the overall
command of the defense of the land walls
by the emperor. Around the same time, the
captains of the Venetian ships that
happened to be present in the Golden Horn
offered their services to the Emperor,
barring contrary orders from Venice, and
Pope Nicholas undertook to send three
ships laden with provisions, which set sail
near the end of March.[5]:81

In Venice, meanwhile, deliberations were

taking place concerning the kind of
assistance the Republic would lend to
Constantinople. The Senate decided upon
sending a fleet in February 1453, but there
were delays, and when it finally set out late
in April, it was already too late for it to be
able to take part in the battle.[4][5]:85
Further undermining Byzantine morale,
seven Italian ships with around 700 men
slipped out of the capital at the moment
when Giustiniani arrived, men who had
sworn to defend the capital. At the same
time, Constantine's attempts to appease
the Sultan with gifts ended with the
execution of the Emperor's
ambassadors — even Byzantine diplomacy
could not save the city.[29]:373

Restored Walls of Constantinople

The chain that closed off the entrance to the Golden
Horn in 1453, now on display in the İstanbul
Archaeology Museums.

Fearing a possible naval attack along the

shores of the Golden Horn, Emperor
Constantine XI ordered that a defensive
chain be placed at the mouth of the
harbour. This chain, which floated on logs,
was strong enough to prevent any Turkish
ship from entering the harbour. This device
was one of two that gave the Byzantines
some hope of extending the siege until the
possible arrival of foreign help.[4]:380 This
strategy was enforced because in 1204
the armies of the Fourth Crusade
successfully circumvented
Constantinople's land defenses by
breaching the Golden Horn Wall. Another
strategy employed by the Byzantines was
the repair and fortification of the Land Wall
(Theodosian Walls). Emperor Constantine
deemed it necessary to ensure that the
Blachernae district's wall were the most
fortified because that section of the wall
protruded northwards. The land
fortifications comprised a 60 ft (18 m)
wide moat fronting inner and outer
crenellated walls studded with towers
every 45–55 metres.[40]

Strength

Map of Constantinople and the dispositions of the

defenders and the besiegers

The army defending Constantinople was

relatively small, totaling about 7,000 men,
2,000 of whom were foreigners.[nb 2] At the
onset of the siege, probably fewer than
50,000 people were living within the walls,
including the refugees from the
surrounding area.[10]:32 [nb 3] Turkish
commander Dorgano, who was in
Constantinople in the pay of the Emperor,
was also guarding one of the quarters of
the city on the seaward side with the Turks
in his pay. These Turks kept loyal to the
Emperor and perished in the ensuing
battle. The defending army's Genoese
corps were well trained and equipped,
while the rest of the army consisted of
small numbers of well-trained soldiers,
armed civilians, sailors and volunteer
forces from foreign communities, and
finally monks. The garrison used a few
small-calibre artillery bullets, which
nonetheless proved ineffective. The rest of
the city repaired walls, stood guard on
observation posts, collected and
distributed food provisions, and collected
gold and silver objects from churches to
melt down into coins to pay the foreign
soldiers.

The Ottomans had a much larger force.

Recent studies and Ottoman archival data
state that there were about 50,000–80,000
Ottoman soldiers including between 5,000
and 10,000 Janissaries,[3][10][11] an elite
infantry corps, and thousands of Christian
troops, notably 1,500 Serbian cavalry that
the Serbian lord Đurađ Branković was
forced to supply as part of his obligation
to the Ottoman sultan—just a few months
before, he had supplied the money for the
reconstruction of the walls of
Constantinople. Contemporaneous
Western witnesses of the siege, who tend
to exaggerate the military power of the
Sultan, provide disparate and higher
numbers ranging from 160,000 to 200,000
and to 300,000[3](Niccolò Barbaro:
160,000;[41] the Florentine merchant
Jacopo Tedaldi[42] and the Great
Logothete George Sphrantzes:[13] 200,000;
the Cardinal Isidore of Kiev[43] and the
Archbishop of Mytilene Leonardo di
Chio:[44] 300,000).[45] At this time cannons
were being made.

Ottoman dispositions and

strategies

The Dardanelles Gun, cast in 1464 and based on the

Orban bombard that was used by the Ottoman
besiegers of Constantinople in 1453 (British Royal
Armouries collection).

Mehmed built a fleet to besiege the city

from the sea (partially manned by Greek
sailors from Gallipoli).[10]Contemporary
estimates of the strength of the Ottoman
fleet span between about 100 ships
(Tedaldi),[42] 145 (Barbaro),[41] 160
(Ubertino Pusculo),[46] 200–250 (Isidore of
Kiev,[43] Leonardo di Chio[47]) to 430
(Sphrantzes).[13] A more realistic modern
estimate predicts a fleet strength of 126
ships comprising 6 large galleys, 10
ordinary galleys, 15 smaller galleys, 75
large rowing boats, and 20 horse-
transports.[10]:44

Before the siege of Constantinople, it was

known that the Ottomans had the ability to
cast medium-sized cannons, but the range
of some pieces they were able to field far
surpassed the defenders' expectations.
Instrumental to this Ottoman
advancement in arms production was a
somewhat mysterious figure by the name
of Orban (Urban), a Hungarian (though
some suggest he was German).[29]:374 One
cannon designed by Orban was named
"Basilica" and was 27 feet (8.2 m) long,
and able to hurl a 600 lb (272 kg) stone
ball over a mile (1.6 km).[48]

Modern painting of Mehmed and the Ottoman Army

Modern painting of Mehmed and the Ottoman Army
approaching Constantinople with a giant bombard, by
Fausto Zonaro

The master founder initially tried to sell his

services to the Byzantines, who were
unable to secure the funds needed to hire
him. Orban then left Constantinople and
approached Mehmed II, claiming that his
weapon could blast 'the walls of Babylon
itself'. Given abundant funds and
materials, the Hungarian engineer built the
gun within three months at Edirne, from
which it was dragged by sixty oxen to
Constantinople. In the meantime, Orban
also produced other cannons for the
Turkish siege forces.[5]:77–8
Orban's cannon had several drawbacks: it
took three hours to reload; cannonballs
were in very short supply; and the cannon
is said to have collapsed under its own
recoil after six weeks (this is disputed,[3]
however, given that it was only reported in
the letter of Archbishop Leonardo di
Chio[44] and in the later and often
unreliable Russian chronicle of Nestor
Iskander).[nb 4] Having previously
established a large foundry about 150
miles (240 km) away, Mehmed now had to
undergo the painstaking process of
transporting his massive artillery pieces.
Orban's giant cannon was said to have
been accompanied by a crew of 60 oxen
and over 400 men.[29]:374

In preparation for the final assault,

Mehmed had an artillery train of seventy
large pieces dragged from his
headquarters at Edirne, in addition to the
bombards cast on the spot.[49]

Mehmed planned to attack the

Theodosian Walls, the intricate series of
walls and ditches protecting
Constantinople from an attack from the
West, the only part of the city not
surrounded by water. His army encamped
outside the city on the Monday after
Easter, 2 April 1453.

The bulk of the Ottoman army were

encamped south of the Golden Horn. The
regular European troops, stretched out
along the entire length of the walls, were
commanded by Karadja Pasha. The
regular troops from Anatolia under Ishak
Pasha were stationed south of the Lycus
down to the Sea of Marmara. Mehmed
himself erected his red-and-gold tent near
the Mesoteichion, where the guns and the
elite regiments, the Janissaries, were
positioned. The Bashi-bazouks were
spread out behind the front lines. Other
troops under Zagan Pasha were employed
north of the Golden Horn. Communication
was maintained by a road that had been
constructed over the marshy head of the
Horn.[5]:94–5

Byzantine dispositions and

strategies

Painting of the Fall of Constantinople, by Theophilos

Hatzimihail
The city had about 20 km of walls (land
walls: 5.5 km; sea walls along the Golden
Horn: 7 km; sea walls along the Sea of
Marmara: 7.5 km), one of the strongest
sets of fortified walls in existence. The
walls had recently been repaired (under
John VIII) and were in fairly good shape,
giving the defenders sufficient reason to
believe that they could hold out until help
from the West arrived.[10]:39In addition, the
defenders were relatively well-equipped
with a fleet of 26 ships: 5 from Genoa, 5
from Venice, 3 from Venetian Crete, 1 from
Ancona, 1 from Aragon, 1 from France, and
about 10 Byzantine.[10]:45
On 5 April, the Sultan himself arrived with
his last troops, and the defenders took up
their positions. As their numbers were
insufficient to occupy the walls in their
entirety, it had been decided that only the
outer walls would be manned. Constantine
and his Greek troops guarded the
Mesoteichion, the middle section of the
land walls, where they were crossed by the
river Lycus. This section was considered
the weakest spot in the walls and an
attack was feared here most. Giustiniani
was stationed to the north of the emperor,
at the Charisian Gate (Myriandrion); later
during the siege, he was shifted to the
Mesoteichion to join Constantine, leaving
the Myriandrion to the charge of the
Bocchiardi brothers. Minotto and his
Venetians were stationed in the
Blachernae palace, together with Teodoro
Caristo, the Langasco brothers, and
Archbishop Leonardo of Chios.[5] :92

To the left of the emperor, further south,

were the commanders Cataneo, with
Genoese troops, and Theophilus
Palaeologus, who guarded the Pegae Gate
with Greek soldiers. The section of the
land walls from the Pegae Gate to the
Golden Gate (itself guarded by a certain
Genoese called Manuel) was defended by
the Venetian Filippo Contarini, while
Demetrius Cantacuzenus had taken
position on the southernmost part of the
Theodosian wall.[5] :92

The sea walls were manned more

sparsely, with Jacobo Contarini at
Stoudion, a makeshift defense force of
Greek monks to his left hand, and prince
Orhan at the Harbour of Eleutherius. Pere
Julià was stationed at the Great Palace
with Genoese and Catalan troops; Cardinal
Isidore of Kiev guarded the tip of the
peninsula near the boom. The sea walls at
the southern shore of the Golden Horn
were defended by Venetian and Genoese
sailors under Gabriele Trevisano.[5] :93
Two tactical reserves were kept behind in
the city, one in the Petra district just
behind the land walls and one near the
Church of the Holy Apostles, under the
command of Loukas Notaras and
Nicephorus Palaeologus, respectively. The
Venetian Alviso Diedo commanded the
ships in the harbor.[5] :94

Although the Byzantines also had

cannons, they were much smaller than
those of the Ottomans and the recoil
tended to damage their own walls.[44]

According to David Nicolle, despite many

odds, the idea that Constantinople was
inevitably doomed is wrong, and the
overall situation was not as one-sided as a
simple glance at a map might
suggest.[10]:40It has also been claimed that
Constantinople was "the best-defended
city in Europe" at that time.[50]

Siege
At the beginning of the siege, Mehmed
sent out some of his best troops to reduce
the remaining Byzantine strongholds
outside the city of Constantinople. The
fortress of Therapia on the Bosphorus and
a smaller castle at the village of Studius
near the Sea of Marmara were taken
within a few days. The Princes' Islands in
the Sea of Marmara were taken by Admiral
Baltoghlu's fleet.[5]:96–7 Mehmed's massive
cannon fired on the walls for weeks, but
due to its imprecision and extremely slow
rate of reloading the Byzantines were able
to repair most of the damage after each
shot, limiting the cannon's effect.[29]:376

The Ottoman Turks transport their fleet overland into

the Golden Horn.
Meanwhile, despite some probing attacks,
the Ottoman fleet under Suleiman
Baltoghlu could not enter the Golden Horn
due to the chain the Byzantines had
previously stretched across the entrance.
Although one of the fleet's main tasks was
to prevent any ships from outside from
entering the Golden Horn, on 20 April a
small flotilla of four Christian ships[nb 5]
managed to slip in after some heavy
fighting, an event which strengthened the
morale of the defenders and caused
embarrassment to the Sultan.[29]:376
Baltoghlu's life was spared after his
subordinates testified to his bravery during
the conflict.
Mehmed ordered the construction of a
road of greased logs across Galata on the
north side of the Golden Horn, and
dragged his ships over the hill, directly into
the Golden Horn on 22 April, bypassing the
chain barrier.[29]:376 This seriously
threatened the flow of supplies from
Genoese ships from the — nominally
neutral — colony of Pera, and demoralized
the Byzantine defenders. On the night of
28 April, an attempt was made to destroy
the Ottoman ships already in the Golden
Horn using fire ships, but the Ottomans
had been warned in advance and forced
the Christians to retreat with heavy losses.
Forty Italians escaped their sinking ships
and swam to the northern shore. On
orders of Mehmed, they were impaled on
stakes, in sight of the city's defenders on
the sea walls across the Golden Horn. In
retaliation, the defenders brought their
Ottoman prisoners, 260 in all, to the walls,
where they were executed, one by one,
before the eyes of the Ottomans.[5]:108[51]
With the failure of their attack on the
Ottoman vessels, the defenders were
forced to disperse part of their forces to
defend the sea walls along the Golden
Horn.

The Ottoman army had made several

frontal assaults on the land wall of
Constantinople, but were always repelled
with heavy losses.[52] Venetian surgeon
Niccolò Barbaro, describing in his diary
one of such frequent land attacks
especially by the Janissaries, wrote:
“ They found the Turks coming right ”
up under the walls and seeking
battle, particularly the Janissaries ...
and when one or two of them were
killed, at once more Turks came and
took away the dead ones ... without
caring how near they came to the
city walls. Our men shot at them
with guns and crossbows, aiming at
the Turk who was carrying away his
dead countryman, and both of them
would fall to the ground dead, and
then there came other Turks and
took them away, none fearing death,
but being willing to let ten of
themselves be killed rather than
 suffer the shame of leaving a single
Turkish corpse by the walls.[41]

Siege of Constantinople as depicted between 1453

and 1475.[53]

After these inconclusive frontal offensives,

the Ottomans sought to break through the
walls by constructing underground tunnels
in an effort to mine them from mid-May to
25 May. Many of the sappers were miners
of Serbian origin sent from Novo Brdo by
the Serbian despot. They were placed
under the command of Zagan Pasha.
However, an engineer named Johannes
Grant, a German[nb 6] who came together
with the Genoese contingent, had counter-
mines dug, allowing Byzantine troops to
enter the mines and kill the workers. The
Byzantines intercepted the first Serbian
tunnel on the night of 16 May. Subsequent
tunnels were interrupted on 21, 23, and 25
May, and destroyed with Greek fire and
vigorous combat. On 23 May, the
Byzantines captured and tortured two
Turkish officers, who revealed the location
of all the Turkish tunnels, which were then
destroyed.[54]
On 21 May, Mehmed sent an ambassador
to Constantinople and offered to lift the
siege if they gave him the city. He
promised he would allow the Emperor and
any other inhabitants to leave with their
possessions. Moreover, he would
recognize the Emperor as governor of the
Peloponnese. Lastly, he guaranteed the
safety of the population that might choose
to remain in the city. Constantine XI only
agreed to pay higher tributes to the sultan
and recognized the status of all the
conquered castles and lands in the hands
of the Turks as Ottoman possession.
“ Giving you though the city depends
neither on me nor on anyone else
among its inhabitants; as we have
all decided to die with our own free
will and we shall not consider our
lives.[nb 7] ”
Around this time, Mehmed had a final
council with his senior officers. Here he
encountered some resistance; one of his
Viziers, the veteran Halil Pasha, who had
always disapproved of Mehmed's plans to
conquer the city, now admonished him to
abandon the siege in the face of recent
adversity. Zagan Pasha argued against
Halil Pasha, and insisted on an immediate
attack. Mehmed planned to overpower the
walls by sheer force, expecting that the
weakened Byzantine defense by the
prolonged siege would now be worn out
before he ran out of troops and started
preparations for a final all-out offensive.

Final assault

Painting by the Greek folk painter Theophilos

Hatzimihail showing the battle inside the city,
Constantine is visible on a white horse
Preparations for the final assault were
started in the evening of 26 May and
continued to the next day.[29]:378 For 36
hours after the war council decision to
attack, the Ottomans extensively
mobilized their manpower in order to
prepare for the general offensive.[29]:378
Prayer and resting would be then granted
to the soldiers on the 28th, and then the
final assault would be launched. On the
Byzantine side, a small Venetian fleet of
12 ships, after having searched the
Aegean, reached the Capital on May 27
and reported to the Emperor that no large
Venetian relief fleet was on its way.[29]:377
On May 28, as the Ottoman army prepared
for the final assault, large-scale religious
processions were held in the city. In the
evening a last solemn ceremony was held
in the Hagia Sophia, in which the Emperor
and representatives of both the Latin and
Greek church partook, together with
nobility from both sides.[2]:651–2

Shortly after midnight on May 29 the all-

out offensive began. The Christian troops
of the Ottoman Empire attacked first,
followed by the successive waves of the
irregular azaps, who were poorly trained
and equipped, and Anatolians who
focused on a section of the Blachernae
walls in the northwest part of the city,
which had been damaged by the cannon.
This section of the walls had been built
earlier, in the eleventh century, and was
much weaker. The Anatolians managed to
breach this section of walls and entered
the city but were just as quickly pushed
back by the defenders. Finally, as the
battle was continuing, the last wave,
consisting of elite Janissaries, attacked
the city walls. The Genoese general in
charge of the land troops,[3][43][44] Giovanni
Giustiniani, was grievously wounded
during the attack, and his evacuation from
the ramparts caused a panic in the ranks
of the defenders.[nb 8]
Sultan Mehmed II's entry into Constantinople, painting
by Fausto Zonaro (1854–1929).

With Giustiniani's Genoese troops

retreating into the city and towards the
harbor, Constantine and his men, now left
to their own devices, kept fighting and
managed to successfully hold off the
Janissaries for a while, but eventually they
could not stop them from entering the city.
The defenders were also being
overwhelmed at several points in
Constantine's section. When Turkish flags
were seen flying above a small postern
gate, the Kerkoporta, which was left open,
panic ensued, and the defense collapsed,
as Janissary soldiers, led by Ulubatlı
Hasan pressed forward. Many Greek
soldiers ran back home to protect their
families, the Venetians ran over to their
ships, and a few of the Genoese got over
to Galata. The rest committed suicide by
jumping off the city walls or surrendered.[4]
The Greek houses nearest to the walls
were the first to suffer from the Ottomans.
It is said that Constantine, throwing aside
his purple regalia, led the final charge
against the incoming Ottomans, perishing
in the ensuing battle in the streets just like
his soldiers. On the other hand, Nicolò
Barbaro, a Venetian eyewitness to the
siege, wrote in his diary that it was said
that Constantine hanged himself at the
moment when the Turks broke in at the
San Romano gate, although his ultimate
fate remains unknown.[nb 9]

After the initial assault, the Ottoman Army

fanned out along the main thoroughfare of
the city, the Mese, past the great forums,
and past the Church of the Holy Apostles,
which Mehmed II wanted to provide a seat
for his newly appointed patriarch which
would help him better control his Christian
subjects. Mehmed II had sent an advance
guard to protect key buildings such as the
Church of the Holy Apostles.

A small few lucky civilians managed to

escape. When the Venetians retreated over
to their ships, the Ottomans had already
taken the walls of the Golden Horn. Luckily
for the occupants of the city, the Ottomans
were not interested in killing them, but
rather in the loot they could get from
raiding the city's houses, so they decided
to attack the city instead. The Venetian
captain ordered his men to break open the
gate of the Golden Horn. Having done so,
the Venetians left in ships filled with
soldiers and refugees. Shortly after the
Venetians left, a few Genoese ships and
even the Emperor's ships followed them
out of the Golden Horn. This fleet narrowly
escaped prior to the Ottoman navy
assuming control over the Golden Horn,
which was accomplished by midday.[4] The
Army converged upon the Augusteum, the
vast square that fronted the great church
of Hagia Sophia whose bronze gates were
barred by a huge throng of civilians inside
the building, hoping for divine protection.
After the doors were breached, the troops
separated the congregation according to
what price they might bring in the slave
markets.

Ottoman casualties are unknown but they

are believed by most historians to be very
heavy due to several unsuccessful
Ottoman attacks made during the siege
and final assault. Barbaro described blood
flowing in the city "like rainwater in the
gutters after a sudden storm", and bodies
of the Turks and Christians floating in the
sea "like melons along a canal".[41]

Plundering phase
Mehmed II had promised to his soldiers
three days to plunder the city, to which
they were entitled.[5]:145[57] Soldiers fought
over the possession of some of the spoils
of war.[58]:283 According to the Venetian
surgeon Nicolò Barbaro "all through the
day the Turks made a great slaughter of
Christians through the city". According to
Philip Mansel, widespread persecution of
the city's civilian inhabitants took place,
resulting in thousands of murders and
rapes and 30,000 civilians being enslaved
or forcibly deported.[59]

The looting was extremely thorough in

certain parts of the city. Weeks later on 2
June, the Sultan would find the city largely
deserted and half in ruins; churches had
been desecrated and stripped, houses
were no longer habitable and stores and
shops were emptied. He is famously
reported to have been moved to tears by
this, speaking "What a city we have given
over to plunder and destruction."[5]:152

Aftermath
On the third day of the conquest, Mehmed
II ordered all looting to stop and issued a
proclamation that all Christians who had
avoided capture or who had been
ransomed could return to their homes
without further molestation, although
many had no homes to return to, and many
more had been taken captive and not
ransomed.[5]:150–51 Byzantine historian
George Sphrantzes, an eyewitness to the
fall of Constantinople, described the
Sultan's actions:[60][61]
“ On the third day after the fall of our
city, the Sultan celebrated his victory
with a great, joyful triumph. He
issued a proclamation: the citizens
of all ages who had managed to
escape detection were to leave their
hiding places throughout the city
and come out into the open, as they
were to remain free and no question
would be asked. He further declared
the restoration of houses and
property to those who had
abandoned our city before the siege.
If they returned home, they would be
treated according to their rank and
religion, as if nothing had changed. ”
The Hagia Sophia was converted into a
mosque, but the Greek Orthodox Church
was allowed to remain intact and
Gennadius Scholarius was appointed
Patriarch of Constantinople. This was
once thought to be the origin of the
Ottoman millet system, however, it is now
considered a myth and no such system
existed in the fifteenth century.[62][63]

Following the city's conquest, the Church of the Holy

Wisdom (the Hagia Sophia) was converted into a
mosque.
After the sack, many feared other
European Christian kingdoms would suffer
the same fate as Constantinople. Two
possible responses emerged amongst the
humanists and churchmen of that era:
Crusade or dialogue. Pope Pius II strongly
advocated for another Crusade, while
Nicholas of Cusa supported engaging in a
dialogue with the Ottomans.[64]

The Morean (Peloponnesian) fortress of

Mystras, where Constantine's brothers
Thomas and Demetrius ruled, constantly in
conflict with each other and knowing that
Mehmed would eventually invade them as
well, held out until 1460. Long before the
fall of Constantinople, Demetrius had
fought for the throne with Thomas,
Constantine, and their other brothers John
and Theodore.[65]:446Thomas escaped to
Rome when the Ottomans invaded Morea
while Demetrius expected to rule a puppet
state, but instead was imprisoned and
remained there for the rest of his life. In
Rome, Thomas and his family received
some monetary support from the Pope
and other Western rulers as Byzantine
emperor in exile, until 1503. In 1461 the
independent Byzantine state in Trebizond
fell to Mehmed.[65]:446
Constantine XI had died without producing
an heir, and had Constantinople not fallen
he likely would have been succeeded by
the sons of his deceased elder brother,
who were taken into the palace service of
Mehmed after the fall of Constantinople.
The oldest boy, renamed to Murad,
became a personal favorite of Mehmed
and served as Beylerbey (Governor-
General) of Rumeli (the Balkans). The
younger son, renamed Mesih Pasha,
became Admiral of the Ottoman fleet and
Sancak Beg (Governor) of the Province of
Gallipoli. He eventually served twice as
Grand Vizier under Mehmed's son, Bayezid
II.[66]
With the capture of Constantinople,
Mehmed II had acquired the "natural"
capital of its kingdom, albeit one in decline
due to years of war. The loss of the city
was a crippling blow to Christendom, and
it exposed the Christian west to a vigorous
and aggressive foe in the east. The
Christian re-conquest of Constantinople
remained a goal in Western Europe for
many years after its fall to the House of
Osman. Rumors of Constantine XI's
survival and subsequent rescue by an
angel led many to hope that the city would
one day return to Christian hands. Pope
Nicholas V called for an immediate
counter-attack in the form of a crusade.
When no European monarch was willing to
lead the crusade, the Pope himself
decided to go, but his early death stopped
this plan. As Western Europe entered the
16th century, the age of Crusading began
to come to an end.

For some time Greek scholars had gone to

Italian city-states, a cultural exchange
begun in 1396 by Coluccio Salutati,
chancellor of Florence, who had invited
Manuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine scholar
to lecture at the University of Florence.[67]
After the conquest many Greeks, such as
John Argyropoulos and Constantine
Lascaris, fled the city and found refuge in
the Latin West, bringing with them
knowledge and documents from the
Greco-Roman tradition to Italy and other
regions that further propelled the
Renaissance.[68][69] Those Greeks who
stayed behind in Constantinople mostly
lived in the Phanar and Galata districts of
the city. The Phanariotes, as they were
called, provided many capable advisers to
the Ottoman rulers.

Third Rome
Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, by Gentile Bellini

Byzantium is a term used by modern

historians to refer to the later Roman
Empire. In its own time, the Empire ruled
from Constantinople (or "New Rome" as
some people call it, although this was a
laudatory expression that was never an
official title) was considered simply as "the
Roman Empire." The fall of Constantinople
led competing factions to lay claim to
being the inheritors of the Imperial mantle.
Russian claims to Byzantine heritage
clashed with those of the Ottoman
Empire's own claim. In Mehmed's view, he
was the successor to the Roman Emperor,
declaring himself Kayser-i Rum, literally
"Caesar of Rome", that is, of the Roman
Empire, though he was remembered as
"the Conqueror". He founded a political
system that survived until 1922 with the
establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

Stefan Dušan, Tsar of Serbia, and Ivan

Alexander, Tsar of Bulgaria both made
similar claims, regarding themselves as
legitimate heirs to the Roman Empire.
Other potential claimants, such as the
Republic of Venice and the Holy Roman
Empire have disintegrated into history.[70]

Impact on the Churches

In 17th century Russia, the Fall of

Constantinople had a role in the fierce
theological and political controversy
between adherents and opponents of the
reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church,
carried out by Patriarch Nikon and
intended to bring the Russian Church
closer to the norms and practices of other
Orthodox churches. Avvakum and other of
the "Old Believers" saw these reforms as a
corruption of the Russian Church, which
they considered to be the "true" Church of
God. As the other Churches were more
closely related to Constantinople in their
liturgies, Avvakum argued that
Constantinople fell to the Turks because
of these heretical beliefs and practices.

The fall of Constantinople has a profound

impact on the ancient Pentarchy of the
Orthodox Church. Today, the four ancient
sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria
and Constantinople are almost completely
void of followers and believers due to the
Islamization and Dhimma system that
Christians lived under since the earliest
days of Islam. As a result of this process,
the center of authority in the Orthodox
Church changed and became centered in
Eastern Europe (e.g., Russia) rather than
previously, in the former Byzantine Middle
East.

Cultural references
Legends

There are many legends in Greece

surrounding the Fall of Constantinople. It
was said that the partial lunar eclipse that
occurred on 22 May 1453 represented a
fulfillment of a prophecy of the city's
demise.[71] Four days later, the whole city
was blotted out by a thick fog, a condition
unknown in that part of the world in May.
When the fog lifted that evening, a strange
light was seen playing about the dome of
the Hagia Sophia, which some interpreted
as the Holy Spirit departing from the city.
"This evidently indicated the departure of
the Divine Presence, and its leaving the
City in total abandonment and desertion,
for the Divinity conceals itself in cloud and
appears and again disappears." [72] For
others, there was still a distant hope that
the lights were the campfires of the troops
of John Hunyadi who had come to relieve
the city.[nb 10]

Another legend holds that two priests

saying divine liturgy over the crowd
disappeared into the cathedral's walls as
the first Turkish soldiers entered.
According to the legend, the priests will
appear again on the day that
Constantinople returns to Christian
hands.[5]:147 Another legend refers to the
Marble King (Constantine XI), holding that
an angel rescued the emperor when the
Ottomans entered the city, turning him into
marble and placing him in a cave under
the earth near the Golden Gate, where he
waits to be brought to life again (a variant
of the sleeping hero legend).[74][23]

Cultural impact

Guillaume Dufay composed several songs

lamenting the fall of the Eastern church,
and the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good,
avowed to take up arms against the Turks.
However, as the growing Ottoman power
from this date on coincided with the
Protestant Reformation and subsequent
Counter-Reformation, the recapture of
Constantinople became an ever-distant
dream. Even France, once a fervent
participant of the Crusades, became an
ally of the Ottomans.

Nonetheless, depictions of Christian

coalitions taking the city and of the late
Emperor's resurrection by Leo the Wise
persisted.[32]:280

Impact on the Renaissance

The migration waves of Byzantine

scholars and émigrés in the period
following the sacking of Constantinople
and the fall of Constantinople in 1453 is
considered by many scholars key to the
revival of Greek and Roman studies that
led to the development of the Renaissance
humanism[69] and science. These émigrés
were grammarians, humanists, poets,
writers, printers, lecturers, musicians,
astronomers, architects, academics,
artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists,
politicians and theologians.[75] They
brought to Western Europe the far greater
preserved and accumulated knowledge of
their own (Greek) civilization.

Megali idea

Between 1919 and 1922, Greek politician

Eleftherios Venizelos attempted to
implement the Megali Idea (recapture of
Constantinople from the Ottoman Empire)
in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)
since the Ottoman Empire was severely
weakened by its defeat in World War I and
by the occupation of Constantinople by
the British and French. However, in the
course of the war Venizelos lost the
election of 1920 and went into exile and
Greece was defeated in the war by Turkey.

Renaming of the city

Ottomans used the Arabic transliteration

of the city's name "Kostantiniyye,"
(‫)اﻟﻘﺴﻄﻨﻄﻴﻨﻴﺔ‬, as can be seen in numerous
Ottoman documents. Islambol (‫اﺳﻼﻣﺒﻮل‬,
Full of Islam) or Islambul (find Islam) or
Islam(b)ol (old Turkic: be Islam), both in
Turkish Language, were folk-etymological
adaptations of Istanbul created after the
Ottoman conquest of 1453 to express the
city's new role as the capital of the Islamic
Ottoman Empire. It is first attested shortly
after the conquest, and its invention was
ascribed by some contemporary writers to
Sultan Mehmed II himself.[76]

The name of Istanbul is thought to be

derived from the Greek phrase īs tīmbolī(n)
(Greek: εἰς τὴν πόλιν, translit. eis tēn pólin,
"to the City"), and it is claimed that it had
already spread among the Turkish
populace of the Ottoman Empire before
the conquest. However, Istanbul only
became the official name of the city in
1930 by the revised Turkish Postal Law as
part of Atatürk's reforms.[77][78][79]

In historical fiction

Lew Wallace, The Prince of India; or, Why

Constantinople Fell. New York: Harper &
Brothers Publishers, 1893. 2 volumes
Mika Waltari, The Dark Angel (Original
title Johannes Angelos) 1952.
Translated from the Finnish by Naomi
Walford and pub. in English edition, New
York: Putnam, 1953
Muharem Bazdulj, "The Bridge on Land"
from The Second Book, 2000.
Translated from Bosnian by Oleg Andric
and Andrew Wachtel and pub. in English
edition, Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, 2005
Andrew Novo, Queen of Cities, Seattle:
Coffeetown Press, 2009
Jack Hight, Siege. London: John Murray
Publisher Ltd, 2010
James Shipman, "Constantinopolis",
Amazon Digital Services, 2013
C.C. Humphreys, A Place called
Armageddon. London: Orion, 2011
 Emanuele Rizzardi, L'ultimo Paleologo.
PubMe Editore, 2017
John Bellairs, "The Trolley to Yesterday"
Dial, 1989

See also
Fetih 1453
"How many angels can dance on the
head of a pin?", question linked to the
imagery of pointless debate while the
city was falling.
Military of the Ottoman Empire
Tursun Beg (Turkish historian)
Ulubatlı Hasan
 Dolfin Dolfin, venetian, naval
commander during the siege

Notes
1. While Mehmed II had been steadily
preparing for the siege of Constantinople,
he had sent the old general Turakhan and
the latter's two sons, Ahmed Beg and Omar
Beg, to invade the Morea and to remain
there all winter also to prevent the despots
Thomas and Demetrius from giving aid to
Constantine XI.[38]:146
2. According to Sphrantzes, whom
Constantine had ordered to make a census,
the Emperor was appalled when the
number of native men capable of bearing
arms turned out to be only 4,983. Leonardo
di Chio gave a number of 6,000 Greeks.[5]:85
3. The Spanish Cristóbal de Villalón claims
there were ' 60,000 Turkish households,
40,000 Greek and Armenian, 10,000
Jewish.[5]:85
4. Another expert who was employed by
the Ottomans was Ciriaco de' Pizzicolli,
also known as Ciriaco of Ancona, a traveler
and collector of antiquities.
5. These were the three Genoese ships sent
by the Pope, joined by a large Imperial
transport ship which had been sent on a
foraging mission to Sicily previous to the
siege and was on its way back to
Constantinople.[5]:100
6. Runciman speculates that he may have
been Scottish[5]:84
7. Original text: Τὸ δὲ τὴν πόλιν σοῖ δοῦναι
οὔτ' ἐμὸν ἐστίν οὔτ' ἄλλου τῶν
κατοικούντων ἐν ταύτῃ• κοινῇ γὰρ γνώμῃ
πάντες αὐτοπροαιρέτως ἀποθανοῦμεν καὶ
οὐ φεισόμεθα τῆς ζωῆς ἡμῶν.[55]
8. Sources hostile towards the Genoese
(such as the Venetian Nicolò Barbaro),
however, report that Longo was only lightly
wounded or not wounded at all, but,
overwhelmed by fear, simulated the wound
to abandon the battlefield, determining the
fall of the city. These charges of cowardice
and treason were so widespread that the
Republic of Genoa had to deny them by
sending diplomatic letters to the
Chancelleries of England, France, the Duchy
of Burgundy and others.[56]:296–97
Giustiniani was carried to Chios, where he
succumbed to his wounds a few days later.
9. Barbaro added the description of the
emperor's heroic last moments to his diary
based on information he received
afterward. According to some Ottoman
sources Constantine was killed in an
accidental encounter with Turkish marines
a little further to the south, presumably
while making his way to the Sea of
Marmara in order to escape by sea.[10]
10. It is possible that all these phenomena
were local effects of the cataclysmic
Kuwae volcanic eruption in the Pacific
Ocean. The "fire" seen may have been an
optical illusion due to the reflection of
intensely red twilight glow by clouds of
volcanic ash high in the atmosphere.[73]

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Further reading
Further reading
Babinger, Franz (1992): Mehmed the
Conqueror and His Time. Princeton
University Press. ISBN 0-691-01078-1
Crowley, Roger (2005): 1453: The Holy
War for Constantinople and the Clash of
Islam and the West. Hyperion. ISBN 978-
1-4013-0558-1
Fletcher, Richard A.: The Cross and the
Crescent (2005) Penguin Group ISBN 0-
14-303481-2
Harris, Jonathan (2007): Constantinople:
Capital of Byzantium.
Hambledon/Continuum. ISBN 978-1-
84725-179-4
 Harris, Jonathan (2010): The End of
Byzantium. Yale University Press.
ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8

Melville Jones, John, The Siege of

Constantinople 1453: Seven Contemporary
Accounts, Amsterdam 1972

Momigliano, Arnaldo; Schiavone, Aldo

(1997). Storia di Roma, 1 (in Italian).
Turin: Einaudi. ISBN 88-06-11396-8.
Murr Nehme, Lina (2003). 1453: The
Conquest of Constantinople. Aleph Et
Taw. ISBN 2-86839-816-2.
Pertusi, Agostino, ed. (1976). La Caduta
di Costantinopoli, II: L'eco nel mondo [The
 Fall of Constantinople, II: The Echo in the
World] (in Italian). II. Verona: Fondazione
Lorenzo Valla.

Philippides, Marios and Walter K. Hanak,

The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in
1453, Ashgate, Farnham and Burlington
2011.

Smith, Michael Llewellyn, "The Fall of

Constantinople", in History Makers
magazine No. 5 (London, Marshall
Cavendish, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1969)
p. 192
Wheatcroft, Andrew (2003): The Infidels:
The Conflict Between Christendom and
 Islam, 638–2002. Viking Publishing
ISBN 0-670-86942-2
Wintle, Justin (2003): The Rough Guide
History of Islam. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-
84353-018-X

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